52 HISfORr of tbt SOClEtr. 



t C r C D?y\dL. ^ eem t0 nint a claim on tneir gratitude. It is not therefore fur- 

 prifing that he was fo much beloved "by his younger friends. 



But Dr Drysdale continued alfo to enjoy the affection of 

 the friends of his youth. Mr Oswald, Dr Smith and Dr Ro- 

 bertson, have been already mentioned. Though his inter- 

 courfe with Dr Smith had been, in confequence of the di- 

 ftance of their fituation, lefs frequent for many years than they 

 could have wifhed, yet they ufed to meet occasionally in their 

 native town, to which they were always fondly attached ; and 

 there, in company with Mr Oswald, and fome other compa- 

 nions lefs known to fame, they fpent many of the raoft pleafant 

 hours of their life. When afterwards Dr Smith came to re- 

 fide in Edinburgh, they then affociated together with lefs inter- 

 ruption ; nor was there any one among all the numerous friends 

 and acquaintance of that excellent man whom he loved with 

 greater affection, or fpoke of with greater tendernefs, than John 

 Drysdale. Two other intimate friends of Dr Drysdale's- 

 earlier years, and on whom he had fet a great value, died long 

 before him. Thefe were Mr William Cleghorn and Dr Wil- 

 liam Wilkie ; the former of whom was the immediate fuc- 

 ceffor of the late Sir John Pringle in the Profefforfhip of 

 Moral Philofophy in the Univerfity of Edinburgh, a young 

 man of great genius, and from whom much was expected ; but 

 he was cut off in the flower of youth : the latter known to the 

 public as the author of the Epigoniad, and Fables in Verfe, 

 was diftinguifhed alfo among a numerous circle of literary 

 friends for extenfive and profound erudition, for a copious and 

 inexhauftible flow of original, amufing and instructing conver- 

 fation, and like wife for fome whimfical and diverting peculiari- 

 ties of character. With the family of the Adams, whofe ge- 

 nius and tafte in the elegant arts of architecture and defigning, 

 have vied with the talents of the poet, the hiftorian, and the 

 philofopher, in reflecting luftre on their native land, Dr Drys- . 

 dale long lived in a conftant reciprocation of good offices,. 



2 both 



